ATV tour
Trip Start
May 05, 2009
1
32
48
Trip End
Sep 20, 2009
Healy,
Alaska,
United States
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Luke is just not up for anymore boat trips. He thinks that an ATV ride would be fun. Val thought that Dave should go and ride ATV's and she would stay at the park, but Dave has a bruised foot and does not feel like riding ATV’s. So Kym, Luke, and Val leave to check out the possibilities of ATV riding outside the park. They go to Black Diamond on Otto Lake Road and sign up for the guided ATV tour. After watching a movie and passing a safety test they are on their way. Val has decided that she will ride with Kym rather than try to drive one of these beasts by herself. (She probably couldn’t have passed the safety test anyway.) The ride was fun with stops at Dry Creek, and at the top of a bluff overlooking Otto Lake and Healy, Alaska. The view from the bluff is spectacular. By the time they get back to Black Diamond they look like black diamonds
Kym, Luke, and the tour guide
. Boy, were they ever dirty. On the way back to camp there is a grizzly bear by the side of the road. When the bear gets tired of the click, click, click of the cameras he is off into the bush. Kym and Luke are both happy to have seen a bear in the wild, and close up. Thankfully, it was in the safety of the truck.
The four of them leave me alone to go into the employee’s dining room for supper, as tonight is the Employee Appreciation Dinner. It’s a free supper for Dave and Val, and they purchase tickets for Kym and Luke. There was prime rib, shrimp, halibut, and on, and on… The fun didn’t last very long because Dave and Val had to get right back out to the park and earn their keep.
It’s a beautiful evening, the mountain is "out," and the campers are happy. Kym and Val leave the guys to take care of the campground, and head back into Riley Creek to check out a trail that takes you under the train trestle. Kym found some cool old artifacts of days gone by. An old wooden barrel, an old pail, and what looks like old foundations for buildings. They met Maggie sitting on the wooden foot bridge near the trestle
ATV'ers at Dry Creek
. She was waiting for her husband to come down from the top of a huge rock. His name is Ted, and he has been up on that rock for a half hour or more. Kym said, “Why don’t you just holler up at him to come down?” Maggie says that she doesn’t think her voice will carry that far. So Kym shouts, “Hey, Ted. Your time’s up. Your wife wants you to come down.” He waves, picks up his pack, and immediately heads down the rock. Maggie says, “Wow! Thanks a lot. He never would have heard me.” Kym (the bullhorn Reynolds) says, “No problem.” Maggie tells Kym that they just got married, and have only just arrived from Anchorage by train. They are on their honeymoon. Val says that explains why he jumped up so quick and headed down to join his new wife. If they had been married for any length of time he would still be up there pretending he did not hear the summons.Kym and Val decide that they better head back for camp before the guys send out a search squad, and on the way back they see four separate moose. The last of the series is a big bull moose. As the sun is beginning to set Kym gets a great picture of the bull crossing the road in front of us. She keeps right on clicking as he heads off into the shrub birch. Now if she could just see a caribou…I say to heck with the caribou, I sort of have a fancy for that cute little Pekinese I see walking around the campground.
Looking for love,
Remington Beagle
